A new plugin we have created converts all properties in your real estate office database into posts through the Wordpress blog and automatically creates real estate tags specific to the property and its location.

What does all of this mean? It will increase the size of your sitemap by around 500% because around 6 website pages are created for every current property and all future properties added to your website. The headline of the post is the headline of the property ad while the post description is the property ad description. At the top of each post we have the property type, listing type, type of sale and address of the property which are all keywords which property seekers are likely to search Google for.

Because everything is automated we are also generating automated tags which search engines love. The tags are specific to the property location and property type, lets take a look at this listing http://www.brealt.com.au/2009/08/acreage-lifestyle-close-to-cooroy/. We have:

363 Lake Macdonald , Cooroy, Qld
House For Sale – $780,000

The tags which are automatically generated are: Buy House Cooroy , House For Sale Cooroy , Real Estate Agent Cooroy , Real Estate Cooroy , Sell House Cooroy.

If the property was for lease, a different type (eg house) or in a different suburb the tags would be different. Each one of these tags creates a page in Wordpress which is then included in the sitemap and sent to Google. This plugin is so powerful as the sitemap for this website http://www.brealt.com.au/sitemap.xml has gone from around 30 pages to over 600 pages in the matter of seconds. So 570 pages packed with property descriptions, headline, address and keywords property seekers can type into Google.

This is only possible due to features of the Wordpress CMS system and how search engine friendly it is.

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We have recently built a wordpress real estate network for the group of offices under the Great Ocean Road Real Estate brand. They have a group website www.greatoceanroadrealestate.com.auand then 6 office websites. They wanted a solution which allowed them to post an article on the corporate website blog which also appeared on the other network websites.

We built a small Multiple Post plugin which allows blogs to be post on an unlimited number of worpdress blogs as long as they are situated on the same server. The post writes to the other blogs and inserts the exact same wordpress post with the same title and description as what is on the original post. It also creates identical tags and categories which were used on the original post.

What’s even better about the plugin is that if you update the post on the original blog it will filter through to the other blogs the post appears on.

Another awesome example of the robust nature of using Wordpress CMS.

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We have just completed a dynamic web application called Mohbe which allows any real estate agent in the World to have a dedicated mobile phone website for each of their property listings. The mobile phone website is viewable through any mobile phone which has an internet browser and access to the internet. We spent considerable time making sure we optimised the mobile phone website to the thousands of different handsets on the market.

What makes this product completely unique are the options available to a property seeker to get the property url into their mobile phone. Mohbe users the latest in barcode technology by allocating a QR Code to each property. A property seeker will scan this QR Code using their mobile phone camera which will then automatically load the mobile property page in the phone’s browser. For those users who do not have a camera phone, they can quickly enter the Mohbe tiny property url into their browser eg Mohbe.com/3467.

Agents have the option to upload their listings manually through the Mohbe interface or they can automatically send property data feeds via xml through to the Mohbe xml parser.

Agentpoint successfully integrated xml, with a wordpress platform which allows for complete account management and secure payments through PayPal while developing a mobile phone website which are compatible with the large number of different phones on the market.

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The popular application WalkScore has now become a phenomena in the US with many major real estate portals including Zillow, ZipRealty and Postlets all deciding to use this application along side their property listings.

What is WalkScore “Walk Score helps people find walkable places to live. Walk Score calculates the walkability of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc. Walk Score measures how easy it is to live a car-lite lifestyle—not how pretty the area is for walking.” Read the rest of this article »

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We are often asked why we chose Wordpress as our CMS. Previously we used a proprietary product. It stood well for a period of time, however as it was only a basic system we decided to look around for alternatives. We came across Wordpress and once we tested some development we knew it was the system for us. Flexible, extendible and with 1000’s of developers using the software, it just made sense.

Wordpress is now pretty much the number one choice worldwide for blogging and extendible CMS systems and our decision has been vindicated not only by the core software but by the company it keeps. Read the rest of this article »

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Getting into social networking can help you expand the reach of your real estate business. With ever increasing real estate business being conducted online it is important that your company places an emphasis on being open and human to your prospective clients.

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Okay, so you list with realestate.com.au or realenz, do you think that will be enough? Fast forward 10 years and I guarantee you will be sending your listings up to at least a dozen websites.

Why is this you may ask? In short one word. Google! Google will soon launch their FREE classifieds site in Australia and New Zealand and its name is Google Base. This will allow your company to list for FREE every single one of your listings and photography. The site will carry only basic data and then forward the user to your website for full listing information.

So how do I get to a dozen websites? Well everything Google does, Yahoo and MSN (Microsoft) do as well and this has happenned all over the world and will happen here in Australasia also.

The one thing that will catapult Google to the top is the fact that in America when you search Google for real estate in their popular search engine Google gives a set of drop downs to refine your results from their FREE classifieds website. This means that people searching for property will not have to go anywhere but Google for their real estate listings. There will also be a number of new real estate portals come on board, some good, some not so good, but you can be sure they will all be free once Google comes on board.

At Agentpoint we are already one step ahead of the rest and our systems already send our Agents property data to the US based Google Base, so we are ready lock stock and barrel for the Australian launch.

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RSS Feeds are one of the big new technologies of the decade. For real estate agents understanding the platform that today’s agencies depend upon for their success is critical and that platform is the Internet.  RSS feeds are a big deal and by using this technology to engage buyers, renters and even vendors will mean you are one step ahead of your competition.
<blockquote>RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows these people to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from your sites that they are interested in.</blockquote>
RSS Feeds save time by users not needing to visit your website to keep up to date with all of your latest listings and news and media releases. If you want to learn more about RSS click here. If you want to subscribe to an RSS feeds you will need the latest free browser from Firefox (best on planet) or Internet Explorer 7.

Microsoft are also about to release its new Windows Live Mail Platform that includes its own feed reader and this will supersede Outlook Express. The Windows Vista Platform also has RSS feed reading as a new feature and this allow users to subscribe to content directly from the desktop.

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